HONG KONG - The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy the Earth, world-renowned scientist Stephen Hawking said Tuesday.

The British astrophysicist told a news conference in Hong Kong that humans could have a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and a colony on Mars in the next 40 years.

"We won't find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system," added Hawking, who arrived to a rock star's welcome Monday. Tickets for his lecture planned for Thursday were sold out.

He added that if humans can avoid killing themselves in the next 100 years, they should have space settlements that can continue without support from Earth. "It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species," Hawking said. "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of."

Hawking has it exactly right. As long as all of our species resides on one speck of dust that is our planet, we will continue to be vulnerable.

What Hawking doesn't say here, and almost certainly wouldn't say, is that Islam constitutes one of the prime threats to the human enterprise, if not the main threat. The disaster Hawking mentions--nuclear war, a doomsday virus, or something else-- could all be jihad-inspired Islamic terrorist attack(s).

Even if one totally discounts the jihad (just ask your friendly neighborhood progressive to do that), can anyone honestly think that Islamic scientists are going to develop the sort of technologies we need to colonize space? C'mon! At present, the pinnacle of Islamic tech is the Iraqi IED, suicide bomb belts and Palestinian Arab 'homemade' rockets. All infidel-killing weapons, and not a peaceful device in the lot.

Islam cares little for this life--rather, it cares much more about the mythical 72 virgins in paradise.